A Quick Look at the New StumbleUpon App

Social discovery engine StumbleUpon has released a new iPhone application, bringing the product’s web functionality to mobile devices.

For those of you unaware, StumbleUpon, which was established in 2001, is a service which allows its users to browse the web in a casual and possibly addictive way. It delivers random web pages to a user based on their personalized categories of interest and also benefits from social networking features. While using the service, users can rate pages up or down and share “stumbles” with friends and others.

The new application, which is available now for iPhone and Android devices, makes the experience mobile. To get stumbling on your iPhone, simply head over to the App Store and download the free 1.6MB application.

Once the application is downloaded, installed and opened, the first thing a user will see is a screen prompting them to log in. If you’re one of the ten million people already using StumbleUpon, then go ahead and tap in your details. If not, the application has a handy link for signing up.

Once logged in, a user will be greeted with a number of options. Tap the Start Stumbling button to begin stumbling random websites straight away, or choose from a number of other options. New to the mobile application is the option to stumble content which is deemed “best'” for mobile devices. This includes photography (from either flickr or the rest of the web), news content or YouTube videos. If none of these choices strike your fancy, then a list of your preferred topics (set when signing up) will also be on offer.

Using the application is fairly simple, with all the basic needs of stumbling content covered. While browsing stumbled content, a user can do the usual rating and stumble to a new page at ease. Sharing discovered content is also a breeze, with options to push your discoveries via email, Facebook and Twitter, or to another StumbleUpon-using friend. Sadly, the ability to leave your comments regarding a page, via a review, is missing, as is the ability to submit a new link to the StumbleUpon system.

Version 1.0 of the StumbleUpon application is available now, for free, from the Apple App Store. Will you be giving it a try?